


Telling More of a Tender Tail

by Hopefulbadger



Series: A Tender Tail [2]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: But Entrapta is hurting, Entrapta is a good friend, F/F, Poor baby Entrapta, Scorpia wants Catra - Freeform, Someone just give these characters a hug, background Adora/Catra
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-30
Updated: 2019-05-30
Packaged: 2020-03-30 02:11:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19032622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hopefulbadger/pseuds/Hopefulbadger
Summary: This story is in a way a continuation of A Tender Tail. You don't need to read the previous story for this one to make sense in the slightest, however, they are both complementary to each other. Scorpia is disheartened that she can't garner Catra's attention. Spotting that her friend is hurting, Entrapta leaps to be of assistance! But why does it hurt so much all of a sudden?





	Telling More of a Tender Tail

Telling More of a Tender Tail

Author's note: This story is in a way a continuation of A Tender Tail. You don't need to read the previous story for this one to make sense in the slightest, however, they are both complementary to each other.

"Well, what's got you down?" Entrapta turned from her project after she spotted the downtrodden scorpion princess from out of the corner of her eye. Dropping her tools, she allowed her hair to carry her towards Scorpia who was slumped over, sitting on a small set of stairs leading into the workshop which the primarily purple presenting princess had usurped soon after she had been captured. "Scorpia?" She followed up, noticing that her new friend's shoulders slumped in what was at best a disheartened slope.

"Hey." Scorpia half-heartedly waived one claw as a welcome before she returned to her moping, head stuffed into her hands with a clear pout.

"Wanna talk about it?" Entrapta offered, sitting beside the pouting princess.

Scorpia huffed a grunt of neither an affirmative or negative response.

"Well? What is it? What's wrong?" Entrapta went to nudge Scorpia, but hesitated and decided against it, wary of upsetting her. It stung in a way? If stinging was the right word? Either way, it was the best one that the somewhat laconic engineer could come up with to describe her own confusing emotions. Why did something of not being able to sit next to the scorpion princess, pressed up against her, sharing shoulder space… why did something of that hurt? Hurt. Hurt? A rudimentary word for sure. But she was certain it was an accurate assessment all accumulated down to a single word.

"It's nothing E." Scorpio waived away any ideation of her own hurt.

E? E? Just E? Entrapta was puzzled. She could recognize it for what it was; a nickname. However, that did nothing to change that the concept was entirely foreign. "That isn't an its nothing face." Entrapta pulled her thoughts together just enough to form the six words of doubt. However, that was all that she could manage before she realized she had undoubtedly begun reaching out with the intent of patting her friend on the shoulder. Restraining herself once more to her own dismay at this unfamiliar sting, Entrapta forced her arm back down to her own side. It would only be hours later, after replaying the encounter for the twenty-third and a half time in her head that she would actually realize that she could simply have asked Scorpia how she wished to be comforted, or of a pat on the shoulder was ok. Maybe even offered a hug? She wouldn't stop beating herself up for missing this obvious logical option until well after her fiftieth mental dissection of the interaction.

"That obvious huh?" Scorpia dropped one hand and allowed her head to turn to the other princess.

Entrapta nodded back gently with a soft empathetic smile.

"Great." Scorpia exhaled an almost appropriately loud sigh for how downtrodden she appeared.

"Well? What is it, S?" Entrapta attempted a similar nickname to her own instantaneous regret, the nickname seeming off and incorrect.

"Catra." The singular name brought with it an even further exaggerated sigh.

"Oh no!" Entrapta instantly assumed she knew what the issue was, that the force captain had grown even more impatient and easily agitated. It was a more than obvious assumption to the engineer that the leader's less than polite, and often malicious outbursts could grow hurtful and leave her friend hurting and or feeling lesser. "I'm so sorry, I know she can be really harsh-" When Entrapta was interrupted she had already begun going in for a supportive hug, knowing that Scorpia might need it if Catra had been saying the same spiteful things to Scorpia that she had been saying to her.

"I just can't seem to get her attention!" Scorpia broke out in her complaint, ignoring that Entrapta had even been talking.

Momentarily time stopped for Entrapta, this idea was idiotic, she should have stayed with the machines, at least those she could predict! Not to mention, the machines never made her feel like her stomach had just dropped through the floor. One exasperated sigh later, she was up on her hair, walking back towards her work. However, it was only a few steps in that she remembered her friend was hurting, and that she should still attempt to assist. Stuffing her emotions back down, she turned back and began to form circles in front of Scorpia. "You can't get her attention you say?" She swapped into problem-solving mode; she had always been better at solving the problems of others than even attempting to understand her own.

"Yeah. I… I just don't know how to get her to notice me! I… I just want to know what she likes… who she likes… if she likes…" Scorpia trailed off just long enough that Entrapta broke the silence.

Whether she spoke so soon because she was actually just too impatient to voice her plan, or if it was subconsciously to save herself from actually having to hear Scorpia say that she wanted Catra to like her, Entrapta spoke up all the same. "I have a plan! I have a plan! I have a plan! And I think that's her coming now!" Entrapta knotted, catching the sound of proud heavy footsteps approaching.

"I… you trust me right?" Entrapta tested quickly. "Cause I have a plan."

"Yes, of course. Thank you." Scorpia found herself naturally growing a smile from where her pout had so predominately presided for seemingly so long. It was more than abnormal to witness someone so eager to help her, it was stunning; stunning and… nice.

"Follow my lead!" She hurried over to the locks Catra had attempted to keep her in back when she had first been discovered.

"So? Did it work? Did it work? Do you think it worked?" Entrapta cheered as her hair easily slipped from its restraints and then turned to release her other appendages.

"Good for nothing discount bargain bin princesses." Catra could be heard rumbling through the hordes vents.

"Yeah, I'm gonna go with a solid no on that one." Scorpia hid her face in her claws disheartened.

"Ah! Come on! It wasn't a total disaster!" Entrapta attempted to defend her plan.

"I'm sorry but what about the phrase, 'Now get back to work you wastes of space!' sounds like anything other than an utter disaster?"

"I!" Entrapta shrilled with the intent of defending the interaction. "Well, no. That bit certainly wasn't great."

"No, it wasn't." Scorpia groaned. "None of it was great, and she is no closer to noticing me in a positive way."

"No, no! That most certainly isn't true!" Entrapta rose both a hand and a sizeable lock of hair in protest.

"Really?" Scorpia lifted a hopeful eye from between her hands.

"We learned something!" The mechanic waggled an eager finger up in the air.

"We did?"

"Most certainly we did!"

"We did!" Scorpia tested out a false confidence.

"Certainly!" Entrapta agreed.

"And… uugh, just to clarify. Because I totally know what we learned, hundred percent, guaranteed, I know, totally! Uugh, but what exactly did we learn again?"

"She likes having a girl tied up!"

"Aack! What!" Scorpia coughed in surprise, shock overwhelming her at the daunting idea which made her head spin.

"Well, you heard her right?"

"Heard! Heard? I heard a what now and when?" Scorpia was still trying to catch her breath, lost and confused.

"Well, when she stormed in the first thing she had to say was that there is no point in having me tied up if I can just get myself out with my hair."

"S… so?"

"And she followed it up with saying 'and it's no fun either!'"

"Okay?" Scorpia lingered on the second syllable.

"So, she's gotta be into bondage." Entrapta snapped her spine straight with such vigorous pride that her welding mask accidentally fell down. The embarrassment was almost enough to ruin her self satisfaction and rob her of the wide smile now hidden by the mask.

"Uugh, you know, well Entrapta, you know, when, when I, when I asked you to help me…" Scorpia moved in closer, pulling up the welding mask with a patient but kind smile, knowing that Entrapta would appreciate it from the small hint of a slight defeat in her posture.

Entrapta smiled up at the scorpion princess almost a whole head taller than her and now only a handful of inches away. Feeling inadequate she used her hair as legs standing taller over Scorpia as she sat cross-legged in the air.

Spotting the petty move the two laughed together, leaning into each other for support as guttural chuckles won them over. It was beautiful. A pure arresting moment, they shared the slightest of touch, just enough to keep each other upright as they heartily laughed. It was just the slightest of touches, but Entrapta could already feel that it would make this all a lot harder in one way or another.

"You were saying?" Entrapta allowed herself back down onto her feet with an innocent grin.

"I didn't necessarily mean I wanted you to help me figure out her opinions on bondage when I asked for your help winning Catra over."

"First off you didn't ask, I believe you were moping over her, and I rambled a bit, offered my assistance, and you said 'Yes, of course. Thank you.'." Entrapta corrected, her grin lingering dispute dimming. "Second." She paused, thinking over what she might say next. "So, whatcha thinking? Learning her opinions on sub or dom, vanilla or spicy? Pet play?" Entrapta's eyebrows indulged in the pun with an overzealous waggle. "Or are you wanting to know if she is into something more eccentric?"

"E! Entrapta! No, no! That is not what I meant, nor was it what I was thinking in the slightest! I was thinking something a little more along the lines of what does she like in a girl? Does she like me? Is she even on to women?" Scorpia yelped embarrassed, cheeks growing almost as rosy red as her lipstick.

"Oh… Well, I mean, she certainly likes women." Entrapta forced herself to focus on being supportive. Scorpia wanted her help, not her incomprehensible jumble of foreign feelings that even she didn't think she could process correctly.

"But how do you know that?!" Scorpia spun, exasperated in anxious ambiguity.

"Have you seen her with Adora?"

"I! Well! Yeah! But!"

"So! It seems like all we need to know now is how does she feel about you!" It stung, it seared, it burned, but if it helped Scorpia… it was ok; nothing felt ok, but if it helped Scorpia… then it had to be ok!

"Yes. That was the question all along Entrapta." Scorpia sighed frustrated with the roundabout route required to return to the dismay origin.

"Hmm!" Entrapta hummed, thinking aloud as she began to use her hair to walk herself in a small circle. "So thoughts, thoughts, thoughts. Plan, plan plan." She repeated emptily, buying time for her turbulent chest to calm.

"Hey, E, look. It is ok if you can't come up with anything. I really appreciate your help, but it's probably just not-" Scorpia's voice petered out enough that her final three words were drowned out entirely. "Meant to be."

"I got it!" Entrapta cheered, spying what she suspected was her answer just over Scorpia's shoulder.

 

"Huh? What is it!" Even after having accepted defeat, Entrapta's cheery tone was enough to bring some excitement back to Scorpia.

"Tell me more about that tale of yours."

The end

Author's note: Huge thanks to Xandra S. who enjoyed my stories, This story is entirely thanks to them! They help make sure I can keep a roof over my head and that I can continue to write and post these stories as much as I can through being a patron, and they are why this story happened. Xandra, you are amazing, and thank you so much for your support!

If you want to have one of these stories made in your honor, please consider becoming a patron! Link on my Tumblr: hopefulbadgerjunara

By the way! Wanna talk with more She-Ra fans? Hang and chat in a safe space with other LGBTQ+ folk? I recently made a discord server, you are welcome to join! It's free, and just a place I hope people can chat and feel safe! Link for the server on my tumblr: hopefulbadgerjunara


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